Microsoft Corp., the world's largest software maker, will begin selling portable music players for as much as 80 percent less than Apple Computer Inc.'s iPod.

The Microsoft-branded devices will "look and feel" as good as the iPod for as little as $50, said Yusuf Mehdi, corporate vice president of MSN at Microsoft Corp., at the Goldman Sachs fifth annual Internet Conference in Las Vegas. The iPod sells for $249 to $499.

Microsoft, based in Redmond, Wash., will release a number of music players when it launches its online music service later this year, giving customers more choices than Apple, Mehdi said.

News source: Denver Post.

Does anyone have more information on these - like storage? I'm really interested to see how Apple responds to an incredibly cheap competitor.

i wouldn't count on it, heres why: microsoft has a tendency to ingeniously take your money. ya, maybe the player will be $50, but "product activation", say $20, proprietary interface requiring music downloads from MS' store, maybe a buck or two a song, maybe annual service charge, say $15, microsoft product tax, $15, blah blah blah, $20, yadda yadda yadda, $50. bottom line, they get you in the long run

For some reason it seems too good to be true, but unlike somekid007 I doubt that they will require you to play only the music you buy from their music site. That would be ridiculous, what about all the music we already have in mp3, wma or any other format??? It would be a very dumb move from microsoft to only support music bought online from them.

maybe they are trying to do the x-box thing. they may lose money at first, but they are investing to make lots of dough in the long run with something else.

microsoft may be sorta dumb with software but those redmond guys do know how to do business. and they play for keeps.

I think it's a bad thing to do from microsoft to promote their upcoming mp3 player as an iPod Look/Feel alike taking advantage of a well known product to introduce their own.

And anyways if there is a mp3 player that stands a chance next to apple's iPod, maybe it's this one: [url]http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/05/27/sony_mp3_vid_player/[/url]

The main issue for me with the iPod is cost. If the iPod minis had cost $100 less and had a somewhat smaller hd I would have been happy. Sadly, they're all incredibly expensive, and it makes it nearly impossible for a poor college student like me to own. I'd take the storage hit if I could buy a similar mp3 player to an iPod for $100.

Ipod Killer

I have one of those MDs, they're amazing! Media is 5$ for 3, and each can hold 3 ripped CDs (I ripped them legally, with Windows Media Player)with sound as good as an IPod. The one I got was 200$, but it can record and manage audio files like a miniature computer.

actually that link is to the new Hi-md. Reformats the old discs to 400mb and burns the new Hi-mds at 1gb. 1gb blanks cost 5-7 bucks. It beats the Ipod on sound, battery and durability hands down. The blanks last forever and you can record over them a million times.

And the model I linked is half the price of an ipod mini and very similar sized.

I too have a MD, NetMD that is that allows me to rip music at an amazing 66kbps using sony's proprietary codec, but you can not tell it from 128kbps mp3. I am looking forward to getting a HiMD as my MD is now going belly up, fastforward doesnt work and sound goes to only one ear

I wish they would give up on the NETMD software although you are entirely correct about the atrak codec being excellent- at single speed I find it to be as good as a 192ks mp3 wich is great for carrying around.

here is the link for the story: [url]http://www.engadget.com/entry/3463715371535682/[/url]

And the original transcript of what Mehdi actually said

He doesn’t say that they’ll be Microsoft-branded players or that they’ll be making the players themsevles, and he doesn’t say that they’ll have a $50 iPod clone, just that there will be “little ones that cost 50 bucks and you can go running with.”